The Symphony Of The Chinese Rhythmic Prose And The English Euphuistic Prose

The translation of the Chinese rhythmic prose (Pian Wen ) with reference to the English Euphuistic prose is an attempt that has not previously been investigated. This study commences from the literary style, and focuses on five translated versions of Lu Ji's Wen Fu (An Essay on Literature). It quantifies the types of translation statistically using a range of linguistic and extra-linguistic variables, and interprets the results within several models of rhetoric devices. Effects are found for the sentence length, the frequency of antitheses, the usage of structural particles, and the rhythmic patterns. Our findings suggest that, with no regulations to follow, many translations of the rhythmic prose are not satisfactory. The euphuistic prose can be a ready-made model for reference in the translating process. Rhythmic prose would be ultimately translated with reference to the euphuistic prose.